Ad-Data Miner Datalogix Taps Banks for Possible 2014 IPO

Datalogix Holdings, which collects consumer transaction data and sells it to advertisers, is plotting a possible initial public offering later this year, people familiar with the deal said.

The Westminster, Colo.-based startup is working with banks including Goldman Sachs Group, Deutsche Bank AG and Barclays PLC on the potential offering, the people said. The IPO could raise roughly $75 million, the people added, but they cautioned that no market value or specific timing for the IPO had yet been settled on.

An IPO would be a good test of investors’ enthusiasm for two of the hottest thematic buckets over the past couple years: “ad tech” and “big data.” Both have produced scores of offerings since 2012, though more recently the sub-sectors have been hit hard by the correction in high-growth tech stocks.

Datalogix, which is also known as a data broker, works with ad publishers such as Facebook and Google to assess the impact of ads served via the web and smartphones. By matching Facebook or Google users against retailers’ email databases and other consumer transaction data, Datalogix can help to determine whether the ads actually resulted in a purchase.

Facebook has said that the matching is conducted anonymously and is automated, so that that neither retailers nor ad publisher obtain personal information that users have not consented to giving out.

The Federal Trade Commission is conducting an investigation into the privacy and business practices of nine data brokers, including Datalogix. That investigation is ongoing, and results are expected this summer.

Datalogix’s IPO may be a highly anticipated deal, in part because it has already attracted some big-name backers. In April, Jim Breyer, the billionaire tech investor, said he had invested “a significant amount” of his personal investment vehicle, Breyer Capital, and joined Datalogix’s board.

The company was started in 2002, when it was called NextAction Corp. In 2009, General Catalyst helped to recapitalize the company as Datalogix and invested more than $10 million.

Last year, Datalogix raised a further $25 million in series B funding, led by Institutional Venture Partners. At the time, Datalogix said it had grown revenue by 50% and added over 100 employees in the past year.

Share prices for other IPOs in the big data and ad tech space have shot up initially, though many of them have corrected sharply in the past few weeks, raising questions about whether future IPOs will perform as well.

Data-analysis software maker Splunk, for example, went public in April 2012. Its share price rose to over $100 earlier this year, but it has fallen back to $45. Shares of Rocket Fuel, which uses artificial intelligence to place ads on the web, jumped above $70 after an IPO last September; they are now around $24.

Shares of Acxiom, a competing data brokerage, are down 41% so far this year. Earlier this month its shares dropped 21% after the company announced the acquisition of LiveRamp, an ad-tech startup.